Xian and James Ehnes

In Xian’s sophomore season as music director, she starts the Symphonic Series with a dose of Romantic-era firepower in Bruch and Berlioz. The program opens with brilliant soloist James Ehnes joining the orchestra for Bruch’s soaring First Violin Concerto, famed for its hypnotic and tender adagio. Bruch provided no cadenzas for any of the movements, believing the concerto’s “virtuosity” was inherent in its shimmering beauty. Then, the ultimate orchestral fever dream: Berlioz’s darkly autobiographical Symphonie fantastique. Originally titled Episode in the Life of an Artist, its dynamic spectrum of moods and adventurous orchestration was unprecedented at the time. Berlioz said he composed it in “a mental boil” and it’s filled with unforgettable moments, including our first reference to this season’s “nature” theme in the third movement’s Scene in the country.